Story-driven first-person puzzle game eternal threads will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on May 23, publisher Secret Mode and developer Cosmonaut Studios announced.
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of eternal threads It was originally planned to be released alongside the PC (Steam) on May 19, 2022, before being delayed nine days before launch until “later in 2022.” While a Switch version was always planned, versions for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox series were recently announced.
Here’s an overview of the game, via its steam page:
About
eternal threads is a story-driven, single-player, first-person puzzle game about time manipulation, choice, and consequences.
As an agent tasked with solving corruption in the timestream, you were sent to the north of England in May 2015, where six people died in a house fire. Since you can’t simply stop the fire, you must manipulate the decisions made by the housemates in the previous week so that everyone survives the event.
From the beginning, you have complete freedom to explore the timeline of seven days before the fire. You can view and modify important events from the entire week as many times as you want and in any order you want. Some decisions will have only minor effects on the timeline, moving objects around the house or revealing deeper stories and secrets. However, major changes rewrite the timeline by changing existing events, adding new events, and even replacing other events entirely.
You must move up and down this timeline, changing decisions at different times throughout the week so that their effects interact and combine to save the six housemates.
However, it’s not just the housemates who have options. Each of them can be saved from the fire in multiple ways, and each outcome will have a profound effect on their lives in the future. Will you simply look for the quickest and easiest solution, or will you be able to find the best possible outcome for everyone?
Ultimately, it’s all about choices and consequences.
Key Features
- Choose how you want to follow the game’s story
- The entire narrative follows the six main characters through multiple decisions across multiple timelines and you can experience them any way you choose. You can focus on the story of just one particular character at a time, following their choices throughout the timelines, and then go back to the beginning and follow another character.
- You can approach the story like a forensic detective, looking at the end results of the story and then working backwards along the timeline, essentially observing the effects and then determining their cause.
- Or you can just watch things in chronological order, experiencing how the timeline unfolds as you watch and change the decisions the characters face as the week progresses.
- Look and change things as many times as you want – Don’t remember exactly what happened at an event? Did you change a decision and aren’t sure you like the consequences? Alright. Simply go back to the timeline and watch and change whatever you want, whenever you want, as many times as you want.
- Change the past to affect the future – Establishing a temporary base in the house within hours of the fire provides a unique perspective on events. As you look back through the timeline, past events unfold before you in ghostly form, with the smoke and fire damaged house a constant reminder of what is to come. Additionally, as you manipulate the past, the environment around you can be reset to match the changes taking place. Some new objects will appear, others will move around the house, and the contents of rooms may change substantially as you change the past.
Watch a new trailer below.